“… but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.”
John 8:12-20 –
This makes me think of tea parties. That amazing set of moments when one of the kids invites me to sit and share ‘tea’… We have little cups and saucers. It used to be my own kids… now it is the children of the Godmother or even a child at the office who has a few moments to sit for tea. … this phrase of arrest because an hour is not come… Arrest is an amazing thing. A heart in arrest. A fall in arrest. An idea in arrest. To see it in a moment of … not yet come.
As a life arc… that moment when the rising comes to a point of arrest and a fall to earth begins. Or, at the deepest arc of a dive… and then the arrest of the decent and the rising back to surface.
In the midst of rise or dive… we arc and get to that arrest point… and as we arc, we arc to path… as is set before … as our arrest hour is not come.
In this time of reflection, the dark which is not dark and the light which is coming into darkness… it is an arc. The cycle of arc. The darkest before the dawn. Not arrested for the hour is not come.
So what is the hour? To be in communion with this moment. The arc of this moment. For … that sharing is the light of all creation. And in that light, even in this dark… that light shines forth so deeply. The deep light of care, of linkage, of connection. In this tapping… the light of connection.
There is a swirl of data and granularity in the air this day. That data, gathering slowly over the past year. The activities now described in that data… It has been with some anguish that, as the delver into the pool of this granularity and data swirl… I admit to worry that the pool will not fill… now, that tap, turned full, has filled the pool. And, in the deep waters of information… a new arc of engagement begins. The filling has come to arrest. The dive is now begun. The darkness before dawn is now the warm pool of wonder.
What is the hour? The hour that is here. Awaiting an hour that… has not come; invites missing the hour that is the tea party. And, in the moment of a tea party… may we raise our cups in toast. Toast to the light in darkness. For that hour is come. And come again and again.
The resources that have shaped this ‘all of creation’ are from everywhere and include everything. To have the law makers declare that not a thing of that … can come from there… it is a declaration that it is come. In that emergence, there is only the quiet sunrise. The birth of the day. It is the same with the going down of the sun. The dying of the day… All in the spinning of the earth. For a long time it was that the earth, as center, caused the sun to spin around… as center. Then, all at once, a vision, a seeing of far beyond the ‘standard.’
The voices of a meeting yesterday… actually, of several conversations… seeing suddenly, the binary of trying to hold the sun … first from rising up, then from setting. Thinking that the earth as center… seeing the system with earth as center… yet, in the new seen, not center place… the spinning earth is spinning …
And so we turn back to living. The new seen … now cannot be unseen. And, the old lawgivers… impotent in this new sunrise, may either engage the new vision or continue to defend, with loud and eloquent speech… not this thing can come from that place.
Yet still, the spinning, the rising, the setting… and in that time… also the passing away and into the new place of the tide, the stream, the river, the knowing. A gift of turning to living… as with each morning. In a humbled sense… knowing when I have lived as the yelling old one and as the exploring and new seeing… for we all live in both places… it is the wonder of living in all creation. A gift. Turning to living… in this wonder of lenten moment.
“… saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?” John 5:1-18
It is comforting to have the dogs wake up and start asking to go out at a certain time. It doesn’t matter that they were keeping me safe from some ‘heard’ thing … just three hours ago. The wagging and smiles… the wonder at seeing, as if for the first time, yet again, what is out there in the world… the excitement of ‘come and see.’
It is comforting to wake and walk out the door to get the papers. That short walk from front door, out the gate and to stoop down to pick them up. In the walk, to take the pulse of the morning. To breathe in that air of the new day. Checking the tank for water. Having a conversation with the dogs… security. A new moment.
It is comforting to breathe in and breathe out. It is comforting to see the clouds in the sky and to hear the harvest all around. It is comforting to be wakened in the night with security … saying that they need to go and see… later… saying that they are ready to come in.
In this comfort is also the still small voice. That voice of wellness in each breath. The answer is yes. For the question is … the comfort in… Do you want to be made well? In gladness and deep lenten preparation, yes.
There is comfort in the question. There is comfort in the reflection. There is comfort in the conviction… the invitation to conviction. And the renewal in breathing in creation. All of a moment. All of a morning. All of each morning. In humbling seeing. The laugh at the wonder of the joke. And in that … comfort in all of this wonder. Comfort in…
